Tag Archives: rockfish

It is all too easy for us to forget about Puget Sound’s
productive kelp forests, which have been slowly vanishing from
numerous places where masses of vegetation once proliferated.

I never fully appreciated the value of kelp until I began
writing about the complexity of the Puget Sound ecosystem. While
scuba diving years ago, I came to understand that kelp harbored a
vast variety of fish, crabs and other creatures. I still like to go
scuba driving and use globo
surf scuba diving gear. Still, mostly out of fear of becoming
entangled in kelp, I never ventured into the middle of a kelp
forest. The stories I heard about divers becoming entangled are
real, but they may have been overblown. (Read the story by
diver/writer Eric Douglas.)

I will never know what I might have seen as a diver in the
middle of a dense kelp forest, but I have always understood that
kelp was generally a good thing. As a boater, however, I tended to
think of the floating kelp balls and blades as a nuisance to get
around or through.

Now I realize that our vanishing bull kelp has been vastly
undervalued. Knowing that kelp continues to disappear leaves me
with a nagging feeling of despair. I cannot conceive of the
ecological loss of a single kelp bed, let alone the dozens of kelp
forests that have vanished from Puget Sound.

Last week, while looking into some early research findings about
Puget Sound rockfish (Water
Ways, June 18), I found an amusing video, one created to
encourage anglers to save the lives of rockfish when releasing the
fish.

The video begins with a talking rockfish (puppet) sitting at a
desk and watching a music video. That leads into a conversation
about barotrauma, a type of injury to rockfish that results when
the fish are caught and brought to the surface from deep water.
Barotrauma can be reversed — and the lives of fish saved — by using
a device to get the fish back down deep.

If you fish in deep water, you probably already know about this
device, but I think everyone can be amused by this video and
appreciate how humor can help introduce people to a serious
topic.

The first couple minutes of the video introduces the viewer to
the problem of barotrauma in simple terms, followed by about five
minutes of product reviews showing various devices to reduce the
effects on fish. If you are not interested in the technical side of
things, you can skip over this part and go to 6:55 in the video.
There you will hear the funny rap song about fishing for rockfish,
including a line about “sending them back to where you got
‘em.”

The music video, “Rockfish
Recompression,” was written and sung by Ray Troll and Russell
Wodehouse. Wodehouse is the musician appearing in the video. Those
two and others have long performed as the group Ratfish Wranglers,
creating funny tunes about fish and related issues.

If you’d like to hear more from this group, check out these
YouTube performances:

This week’s announcement that the coastal population of canary
rockfish had dramatically rebounded got me to wondering what new
information might be coming from research on the threatened and
endangered rockfish of Puget Sound.

Canary rockfish // Photo
by Tippy Jackson, NOAA

Dayv Lowry, research scientist at the Washington Department of
Fish and Wildlife, shared some intriguing new information about
Puget Sound rockfish that could link into the coastal population.
In fact, if limited genetic findings hold up, a delisting of one
type of Puget Sound rockfish could be in order.

On Monday, the Pacific
Fishery Management Council reported that West Coast populations
of two groundfish species — canary rockfish and petrale sole — have
been “rebuilt” some 42 years earlier than expected. Canary rockfish
were declared “overfished” in 2000, and a rebuilding plan was put
in place a year later. Strict fishing restrictions were imposed,
and experts expected the stock to rebound successfully by 2057.

“This is a big deal,” former council chairman Dan Wolford said
in a
news release. “We now have six times more canary rockfish than
when we scaled back so many fisheries. This shows the Pacific
council’s conservation policies work.”

Meanwhile, WDFW and NOAA Fisheries are researching the three
species of Puget Sound rockfish listed under the Endangered Species
Act. They are canary
rockfish and yelloweye
rockfish, both listed as threatened, and bacaccio,
listed as endangered.

Yelloweye rockfishPhoto by Kip Evans, NOAA

Underwater surveys with a remotely operated vehicle in 2012 and
2013 looked for all sorts of bottomfish across a grid laid down on
Puget Sound. Researchers found a greater abundance of quillback and
copper rockfish (not ESA listed) than in the past, and young
juvenile quillbacks were seen on muddy substrate — not the place
you would normally look for rockfish.

While that was encouraging, nearly 200 hours of video at 197
grid points revealed just two canary and five yelloweye
rockfish.

“That was quite distressing to us,” Dayv said.

This year and next, surveys are more focused on rocky habitat,
including locations where fishing guides say they have had success
catching rockfish in the past. The results are more encouraging,
locating somewhere around 40 canary and 40 yelloweye and two
bacaccio, Dayv said.

“We’ve caught some big fish and some little fish, so the
population demographics have not entirely collapsed,” Dayv told me,
and that means there is still hope for recovery.

Rockfish don’t typically reproduce until somewhere between 5 and
20 years old, so over-fishing places the future of the entire
population at risk. Some rockfish are known to live as long as 100
years.

Genetic work so far is offering some intriguing new findings, he
noted. While yelloweye rockfish from Puget Sound and the Strait of
Georgia seem to be distinct from those on the coast, the same
cannot be said for canary rockfish.

In fact, the limited samples taken so far suggest that the
coastal population of canary rockfish — those found by the PFMC to
be “rebuilt” — may not be genetically distinct from canary rockfish
living in Puget Sound.

If that proves to be the case, it could have a profound effect
on what we understand about canary rockfish and could even lead to
a de-listing of the Puget Sound population.

Kelly Andrews, a genetics expert with NOAA Fisheries, cautioned
that the sample size is small and more results are needed before
anyone can draw conclusions. New samples are soon to be examined to
see if there are any differences between canary rockfish on the
coast and those in Puget Sound.

“What initially may seem to be the same could change
dramatically with all these new samples we just got,” he told me.
“Still just finding them is good news.”

When the Puget Sound rockfish were listed in 2010, researchers
did not have the genetic data to define the populations in that
way, so they used reasonable assumptions about geographic
isolation. Now, the genetics can be factored in.

A five-year review is due to be completed this year for the
listed rockfish in Puget Sound. If the new genetics information
holds up, then the technical review team could propose a delisting
of the canary rockfish.

For that reason, a long-awaited recovery plan for rockfish is
being completed for the most part, but its release will be delayed
until the genetic information is conclusive and the five-year
review is completed. It would not make sense to come out with a
recovery plan for canary rockfish, if the plan is to delist the
population.

Meanwhile, small areas of Quilcene and Dabob bays have been
reopened to fishing for some flatfish. (See earlier news release.)
Bottom fishing is generally closed in Hood Canal because of the
ongoing low-oxygen problems and its effects of bottom fish.

As in other areas of Puget Sound, targeted bottom fishing must
take place in less than 120 feet of water, and all rockfish caught
must be released. Experts strongly advise using a “descending
device” (see video) to get rockfish safely back to deep water, no
matter where they are caught. Without that, many of the fish die
from barotrauma caused by the ballooning of their swim bladder as
they are brought to the surface. See
“Bring That Fish Down” by California Sea Grant and “Protecting
Washington’s Rockfish” by WDFW.

National Marine Fisheries Service has designated more than 1,000
square miles of Puget Sound as “critical habitat” for rockfish — a
colorful, long-lived fish decimated by over-fishing and
environmental problems.

Canary rockfish // Photo
by Tippy Jackson, NOAA

In Hood Canal, we know that thousands of rockfish have been
killed by low-oxygen conditions, and their populations have been
slow to recover because of low reproductive rates. Elsewhere,
rockfish are coming back with mixed success, helped in some
locations by marine protected areas.

The final designation of critical habitat was announced today in
the
Federal Register for yelloweye rockfish and canary rockfish,
both listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, and
bocaccio, listed as “endangered.”

The critical habitat listing includes 590 square miles of
nearshore habitat for canary rockfish and bocaccio, and 414 square
miles of deepwater habitat for all three species. Nearshore areas
include kelp forests important for the growth and survival of
juvenile rockfish. Deeper waters are used for shelter, food and
reproduction by adults.

Yelloweye rockfishPhoto by Kip Evans, NOAA

Potential critical habitat was reduced by 15 percent for canary
rockfish and bocaccio and by 28 percent for yelloweye rockfish.
Most of the excluded area was deemed already protected, either by
tribes near their reservations or by the military near Navy and
Army bases and their operational areas.

The designated habitat overlaps in large part with existing
critical habitat for salmon, killer whales and bull trout. The only
new areas added without overlap are some deep-water areas in Hood
Canal.

Under the law, federal actions within designated habitat must
undergo consultations with the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Such actions — which include funding or issuing permits for private
development — cannot be approved if they are found to be
detrimental to the continuing survival of the species.

“Saving rockfish from extinction requires protecting some of the
most important places they live, and that’s exactly what’s
happening now in the Puget Sound. These habitat protections will
not only give rockfish a fighting chance at survival but will help
all of the animals that live in these waters.”

The three species of rockfish were placed on the Endangered
Species List in 2010, following a series of petitions by biologist
Sam Wright. Last year, the Center for Biological Diversity notified
the National Marine Fisheries Service of its
intent to file a lawsuit over the agency’s delay in designating
critical habitat.

Federal and state biologists are now working on a recovery plan.
I have not heard whether they still hope to get the plan completed
next year.

Rockfish are unusual among bony fishes in that fertilization and
embryo development are internal. Female rockfish give birth to live
young. After birth, the larval rockfish may drift in shallow waters
for several months, feeding on plankton. Among the listed
species:

Canary rockfish can reach up to 2.5 feet in length. Adults have
bright yellow to orange mottling over gray, three orange stripes
across the head and orange fins. They can live to be 75 years
old.

Bocaccio can reach up to 3 feet in length. They have a
distinctively long jaw extending to the eye socket. Adult colors
range from olive to burnt orange or brown. Their age is difficult
to determine, but they may live as long as 50 years.

Yelloweye rockfish can reach up to 3.5 feet in length and 39
pounds in weight. They are orange-red to orange-yellow in color and
may have black on their fin tips. Their eyes are bright yellow.
They are among the longest lived of rockfishes, living up to 118
years.

“These declines have largely been caused by historical fishing
practices, although several other stress factors play a part in
their decline. Rockfish in urban areas are exposed to high levels
of chemical contamination, which may be affecting their
reproductive success. Poor water quality in Hood Canal has resulted
in massive periodic kills of rockfish as well as other species.
Lost or abandoned fishing nets trap and kill large numbers of
rockfish.”

The plan identifies these objectives to restore the
population:

Place the highest priority on protecting and restoring the
natural production of indicator rockfishes to healthy levels,

Promote natural production through the appropriate use of
hatcheries and artificial habitats,

Protect and restore all marine habitat types for all rockfish
species,

Manage all Puget Sound fisheries to ensure the health and
productivity of all rockfish stocks,

Protect and restore existing functions of rockfish in the
complex ecosystem and food web in Puget Sound,

Three species of Puget Sound rockfish have been proposed for
listing under the Endangered Species Act. Bocaccio is proposed as
“endangered,” while canary and yelloweye rockfish are proposed as
threatened. (See the news
release from the National Marine Fisheries Service.)

Yelloweye rockfishPhoto by Tory O’Connell, Alaska Department of Fish and
Game

Of course, any listing is predicated upon scientific assessments
of the population and risk of extinction, but I don’t recall any
listed animal linked so closely to the efforts of a single
person.

Sam Wright, a biologist who retired from the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife, first petitioned to list 18
species of rockfish in 1999. But agency officials said he had not
pulled together enough information, so his petition was rejected.
Then he tried again in 2007, and was rejected again — until after
he added more information and asked for reconsideration. Finally,
Wright has experienced success — if you can call it that — for
these three species.

Two other rockfish species under review — greenstriped and
redstriped rockfish — did not warrant listing at this time,
according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Divers used to spear these rockfish and take them home to eat,
he said, but now that they are nearly gone, there is a growing
feeling of “look but don’t touch.”

Wright said he believes that saving rockfish is “more a matter
of respect than anything else.”

Commercial fishing years ago has been blamed for the steep
decline, and the stocks have never recovered.

In this latest action, critical habitat was not yet proposed,
and it is unclear what other measures may be taken to protect
rockfish. The proposed listing is subject to review and comment
before becoming final.